Family and baking is a big deal during the holidays. Special recipes come out and we take time to bake them together. In my family, that means three generations getting together to bake my grandmother's favorite cookie recipes.

As members of Clarkston United Methodist Church, we also bake cookies for the UMW Cookie sale during the Alternative Christmas Gift Fair, Dec. 7-8.

There are great selections of cookies all homemade with love. They are sold by the pound and they go quick! This year we plan on baking one of our family favorites – Christmas shortbread. Please come by and get yourself a box full of wonderful treats that light up any holiday get together – Saturday, Dec. 7, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, Dec. 8, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

All profits benefit people in need locally, nationally and globally. Come join us and buy meaningful Christmas gifts for your family and loved ones, and stock up on Christmas cookies.

On behalf of all of the members of the Clarkston area Blessings in a backpack, I would like to thank the community for their donations and the any raffle tickets that were purchased at Thursday's Clarkston Area Chamber Best of the Best Business and Community Expo.

I would also like to thank the community businesses that donated items included in the backpack; Coach's Corner, Lisa's Confection Connection, Rudy's Market, Neiman's family market and the Wolves Den at CHS.

Blessings in a Backpack is a "neighbor-helping- neighbor" program that is designed to help meet the nutritional needs of children and families.

Each week, volunteers, in cooperation with school officials, distribute backpacks filled with enough non-perishable food for the weekend (six meals) to "at-risk" students. These students are participants in the government subsidized free or reduced fee hot lunch program.

The goal of the Blessings in a Backpack program is to keep these students from going hungry on weekends and remove barriers to academic success.

Thanks to the generous support of the community we are now able to provide this much needed service into all of the buildings in the Clarkston Community School family.

Thank you again to our generous business owners for their donations and to the members of the community who continue to support the children in our community.